New Satellite Images Show 'Giant Scar' on Mars Surface Longer Than Grand Canyon

New satellite images have shown a mysterious "giant scar" on the surface of Mars , longer than the length of the Grand Canyon in the United States .

Knewz.com has learned that this "scar" is located on the foot of one of the largest volcanoes on Mars.

Pictures of this gigantic feature were captured by the Mars Express, a satellite operated by the European Space Agency, using its High-Resolution Stereo Camera.

Named Aganippe Fossa, the "scar" is actually something called "graben," which the Agency describes as "a ditch-like groove with steep walls on either side."

The scar slices across a length of around 373 miles, making it longer than the 277-mile-long Grand Canyon natural formation in the U.S.

It is located near the base of the Arsia Mons, one of the largest volcanoes on the Martian surface boasting a diameter of around 270 miles and a height of around 5.6 miles.

"For context, the highest dormant volcano on Earth , Ojos del Salado on the Argentina -Chile border, tops out at under 7 km [4.35 miles]," the European Space Agency pointed out.

Discovery of this scar has left scientists theorizing about how this feature came to be.

The region where the giant scar has been found is known as Tharsis and is home to several of the major Martian volcanoes , including the Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the Solar System .

Scientists at the European Space Agency believe that the feature was formed as a result of rising magma underneath the surface of the Tharsis region, which caused the terrain to stretch and crack. Much like a stretch mark on the surface of Mars.

Images of the Aganippe Fossa captured by the Mars Express satellite also show that the scar runs across two distinctly different types of terrain: a "so-called hummocky terrain, which comprises many irregularly shaped mounds and valleys all clustered together," and a "lobate terrain, which is formed of gently sloping cliffs and rocky debris."

"These terrains are characteristic of Arsia Mons’s ring-shaped ‘aureole’, a 100000-square-kilometre [38610 square miles] disc around the base of the volcano, possibly associated with ancient glaciers," the European Space Agency explained .

"Intriguingly, this aureole has only built up on the northwestern flank of the volcano, likely due to prevailing winds from the opposite direction controlling where ice settled over time."

The Mars Express satellite arrived at the Martian orbit back in December 2003 and began its scientific operations in 2004.

Per the European Space Agency, the satellite has provided the most complete map of the chemical composition of the atmosphere of Mars and studied Phobos, the innermost moon of Mars, in "unprecedented detail."

In addition, the satellite has also been able to map the history of water on the planet, during which it found that the environment of Mars was capable of sustaining life at one point in time.

Pictures captured by the satellite's High-Resolution Stereo Camera in June 2024 showed frost on the surface of the Olympus Mons volcano, marking the first time water frost has been found near the Martian equator.